Ventana Research Analyst Perspectives

It has been nearly two and a half years since the world was thrust into one of the most dramatic eras of workforce transformation in the modern era. Organizations have been forced to reevaluate everything about the workforce, from the physical spaces in which work is done, to compensation, to non-traditional benefits and work/life enhancement offerings. Even so, many continue to struggle to attract and retain the right talent to support operational needs. As leaders continue to redesign how they look at their talent pools, they have come to rely on their technology stacks more than ever to inform and enable new processes and experiences for candidates and employees, and recruiters and managers, throughout the entire talent life cycle. We at Ventana Research assert that by 2025, two-thirds of organizations will expect full talent life cycle support from their talent platform to bolster and unify the experience for candidates, recruiters, employees and managers.

As I discussed in this recent analyst perspective, many applicant tracking systems of decades past have evolved into total talent platforms, allowing organizations to see and engage talent holistically, rather than as segmented pools traditionally divided into external, internal and beyond. iCIMS Talent Cloud is one of the technology offerings that has led that evolution. Founded in 2000, iCIMS quickly became one of the leading cloud-based applicant tracking systems. Today, through native development combined with a series of acquisitions and a robust partner marketplace, iCIMS has evolved into a full life cycle talent management platform. Its capabilities include:

• An applicant tracking system to find, manage and hire candidates
• Career sites, providing organizations the ability to showcase their employer brand and intelligently match candidates to roles based on skills and potential
• Candidate relationship management capabilities, supporting nurture campaigns to personally engage top candidates and build talent pipelines
• Employee onboarding, extending a seamless and unified candidate experience after an offer has been accepted, during the critical time before day one when candidates are at risk of rescinding an acceptance
• An opportunity marketplace, providing communication, skills curation and opportunity identification for the ever-important internal talent category, in a single platform that is familiar to both recruiters and employees and is integrated within the flow of work

As mentioned, iCIMS has made several acquisitions in recent years that have demonstrated its connection with the ever-changing needs of candidates and employers alike, both domestically and abroad. The acquisitions of TextRecruit, Jibe, Altru Labs, Opening.io, EASYRECRUE and Candidate.ID elevated the platform’s ability to engage candidates and employees via text, provide advanced career sites for employers, embed video in career sites and communication and identify and market directly to top talent. By choosing a “buy” versus “build” strategy, iCIMS has been able to stay ahead of market needs and prevent leapfrogging by other vendors that could diluted the value of the overall offering.

With an additional undisclosed amount of funding in May of this year, iCIMS seems to be set to continue its dominance in the talent platform space. Enterprise organizations seeking an abundance of capability within a single platform, or through a robust partner marketplace network, would do well to consider iCIMS as an option.

Talent acquisition should no longer be viewed simply as an external market activity. With iCIMS, organizations can nurture and manage their complete talent community, which includes existing employees. That said, iCIMS is not an all-in-one offering from a pricing perspective; meaning those wishing to take advantage of the full suite of capabilities should ask pointed questions about pricing and inclusions – including the cost and timing of integrations – during any request for proposal process or other sales activity. Further, with new systems come an abundance of change, so comprehensive change management support should also be a requirement. Still, the iCIMS talent cloud is a complete platform and worth consideration for any organization considering modernization of its talent technology stack.

Regards,

Quincy Valencia